TS school books: No AP printers

The Telangana government is reluctantly considering scrapping the existing textbooks publishing contract, awarded before the bifurcation, to five companies, only one of whom is from the state. The government has sought the law department’s opinion on this.

In an academic year, about three crore textbooks for Classes I to X are printed. About 2.4 crore are distributed for free in government schools. The remaining are sold to students of private schools.

Every three years, fresh tenders are called for printing, the last of which was in 2014, before the bifurcation.

Four of the current contract holders are from Andhra Pradesh, while just one is from Telangana. Local printers are demanding that the state government scrap the existing contracts and call for fresh tenders, restricted only to local publishers.

Justifying the demand, Telangana Political JAC convener Prof. M. Kodandaram said, “There is no need for printers from other states to print our books. Our printing industry will also flourish.”

Local printers, meanwhile, say that the work is actually being outsourced to them by the current contract holders, so why not cut out the middleman? The academic schedule is now being threatened as the delivery of textbooks may miss its deadline with printing yet to begin. A senior school education department official said the file regarding this issue has been sent to the law department and the government will decide based on the outcome.

Another official also mentioned that they are worried about the capability of local printers. “It would be risky at this time to give new contracts,” he said.